Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The crisis in black America is threefold...economic...political...and spiritual. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
John Coltrane was an addict; Billie Holiday was an addict; Eugene O'Neill was an addict. What would America be without addicts and… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There ought to be a robust, uninhibited conversation in black America with different black ideological perspectives. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Our problem is that we don't have enough people in America, including black people, who are progressive and willing to sacrifice their… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I'm a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration - joy and pain -… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Frederick Douglas's agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The paradox of race in America is that our common destiny is more pronounced and imperiled precisely when our divisions are deeper. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I am not optimistic, but I've never been optimistic about humankind or America. The evidence never looks good in terms of forces… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
This book is the best treatment of the best American Marxist philosopher-and the best philosopher to emerge from American slums. Young Sidney… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There are different varieties and forms of capitalism. There are priorities within the capitalist society so that you can have countervailing forces… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I'm a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration... "Joy and Pain" - sit… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Since the end of the postwar economic boom, certain strategies have been intensified to stimulate consumption, especially strategies aimed at American youth… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
To accept your country without betraying it, you must love it for that which shows what it might become. America -- this… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
A black agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, quality education, investment in infrastructure and strong democratic regulation of corporations. The black agenda, at… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"-- they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King Jr's agenda was not to help Negroes overcome American apartheid in the south. It was to make America democracy… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I think Martin Luther King would always keep track of collective insurgencies among poor and working people. He was concerned about the… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Only a visionary leadership that can motivate "the better angels of our nature," as Lincoln said, and activate possibilities for a freer,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I'm a Christian. I believe that greatness has to do with the quality of love shown to the least of thy brethren… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Needless to say, this fragile experiment began by taking for granted the ugly conquest of Amerindians and Mexicans, the exclusion of women,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The problem is that in America is that the nation state has been so weak when it comes to the history of… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
What is accurately portrayed is the rich humanity not just of Martin Luther King but of the movement, which was a multiracial movement. You… — Cornel West Copy Share
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.' — Cornel West Copy Share
“Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.” — Cornel West Copy Share
“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]” — Cornel West Copy Share
When we think of globalization we are thinking in part of structures and institutions that have been developed over time and that have allowed… — Cornel West Copy Share
The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace. — Cornel West Copy Share
The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they… — Cornel West Copy Share
For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo. — Cornel West Copy Share
I don't draw any distinctions between forms of bigotry or forms of ideology that lose sight of the humanity of people. I can't stand… — Cornel West Copy Share
Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept… — Cornel West Copy Share
Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so… — Cornel West Copy Share
You can see it in terms of the obsession on Wall Street with not just profits but greed, more profit, more profit. — Cornel West Copy Share
Anybody who takes Martin Luther King seriously has got to go beyond the standard understanding of who he was, has to connect those dots. — Cornel West Copy Share
![“The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic in the 21st century. It's just as simple as that.” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/496/cornel-west-708_21st-century_the-legacy-of-martin-luther-king-is-the_3221308.jpg)
